Airbnb was founded in 2008 as a homesharing service. By 2011 the company was in 89 countries and had 1 million nights booked. The company’s trouble began soon after and in 2017 complaints began coming in about assaults taking place on Airbnb properties and the company not doing enough to have prevented them. Soon after The Wall Street Journal created a report that spanned several cities, showing there were hundreds of instances of crimes at licensed short–term rental properties on platforms such as Airbnb, including burglaries, sexual assaults, and murders. Additionally, in 2017, the Santa Fe–based travel–advice site, Asher & Lyric, researched more than 1,000 incidents regarding Airbnb found on 3rd–party review sites, major news outlets, and from well–known travel bloggers. They found everything from murders, rapes, and kidnappings associated with short–term rentals to hosts using secret cameras to spy on their guests. Due to lawsuits and continuing complaints, the company has begun to take a look at their policies. Today the company is present in over 190 countries.
Legally, a survivor of assault associated with Airbnb or other homesharing service may recover financial compensation from the host or guest and, more commonly, from the homesharing company for its failure to protect the customer from the assault, as well as potential failures or deficiencies in its process of reviewing and responding to the survivor’s report of the assault. If you are a survivor of assault and would like to confidentially discuss your situation and your legal options, we are prepared to talk with you.
If you prefer to speak with us directly regarding your incident, please call The Meneo Law Group at 1-866-371-8506 1-866-371-8506 or send us a confidential email.